Gaming for Good: Sea Hero Quest lets you play and help dementia research

Sea Hero Quest is the first mobile app that was designed and created to study the human brain with the goal of fighting dementia. Scientists have reached out to millions of gamers with Sea Hero Quest, and that has drastically sped up the research for finding a cure.

And the best part?! Sea Hero Quest is available for free!

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. So you really have no good reason not to be downloading the app right now!

If you're interested in the backstory of the game, click here, otherwise continue on to find out more.

Sea Hero Quest has three types of mini games. The first type begins with a map that the player must memorize to locate the buoy(s) in the level. The player is only allowed to see the map once, and this can grow challenging as the difficulty increases. I had a hard time with this, as I'm used to quickly clicking away from menu screens to get to the gameplay. Many times I closed the map without even glancing at it, only to silently curse at myself right after. Nevertheless, I still had fun sailing the little boat around.

In the second type of mini game, the player must wander around until they find a flare. Once the flare is found, the user has to shoot the flare to where they think their starting point was. This one was harder for me than it probably should have been...but I've never had the best sense of direction.

The last type of mini game consists of chasing a monster while side-stepping obstacles. Once the player gets close to the monster, the user has to wait for a good time to snap a picture of it. The score received will partially depend on how the picture of the monster turned out. I had the most fun with this type of game as I enjoyed trying to get the perfect picture.

Overall, I had a great time familiarizing myself with Sea Hero Quest. It wasn't a life-changing game, but it was engaging and nice knowing that I was doing something that could potentially help people with dementia one day. Please try it for yourselves and tell me what you think!